When I try
to think of a leader which inspires me it takes me a while to think about that
question. I sit back in my chair and I am puzzled by this question, I guess I
never gave it much thought. I started to think about where I was in my life,
who I thought I was, what I was and why I am doing what I do in my everyday
life. I started to question why I was still working hard to get better in life,
I have a great paying job, I am a college graduate and for the most part life
is pretty good. Although here I am doing school work on a sunny afternoon when
I could be at the park playing baseball with my son. It instantly came to me in
a second when I thought about just doing what is easier in life and I thought
about my dad. My Father was born on a farm in a foreign country, probably not
an easy life by any means, I am sure that it consisted of hard work but I knew
that my dad was comfortable doing what he did. It was not a challenge for him
and he knew the ins and outs of farm work. At the age of 18 my dad took his
life savings and got on a plane to come to the United States. Now of course
there was a lot of thought to this, it was not spur of the moment, nor was he
just doing it just for fun. There was reason for him changing his life, he
wanted to do something special in his life and give his future family more than
he ever had. He believed in the “why” of what he was doing which is why he
poured his blood, sweat and tears into his new life.
My dad was
the leader of my family and he inspires me to this day more than anyone that I
can think of. He might have not changed the world as the wright brothers did
which were able to fly the first plane but he was able to show me that in life
we need to keep pushing and never stay in our comfort zone. My dad inspires me
as an individual because I also come from humble beginnings growing up in New
York City where the majority of people stay in their comfort zone. At the age
of 18 I was just like my father and now I had the “why” that I wanted to pour
my hard work into. I did not want to stay where I was comfortable and work a
regular job for the rest of my life, I want to do something special and provide
my children with the life that I did not have growing up. There is something to
be said about a leader that goes beyond being satisfied with their work, a
leader must push the envelope never being satisfied with mediocrity. A leader
does have to ask why they are doing the things they do and not just for profit
but to do the best possible job they can do. There are many companies that have
the “why” and still to do this day people will spend years working for a
company that can only afford to pay them less than others places might, the
difference is that the employees believe in what they are doing. They have a
love for what they do and this is what makes some companies much more successful
than others. Companies that know why they do what they are doing have managers
which take on the leadership role and make a difference. In this case the word
manager is more than just a title, your managers in companies that believe what
they do are more like leaders.
When we
think about what a typical manager does we have to think about how a manager
works on a daily basis. “Most managers make less momentous decisions in the
process of solving operational problems, setting short term goals, assigning
work to subordinates, setting up work schedules, authorizing the expenditure of
funds for supplies or equipment and approving pay increases(yukl pg.28). This
is not what a leader does, a leader does not use their time doing task rather
they use their time creating new ways of doing things and knowing how to get
the most out of his subordinates. A leader does this because they believe in a
company or they believe in their goals and they want to get the most out others
imaginations and creativity. A leader wants to do new things and be the first
to achieve new heights while bringing along his following. A leader wants to be
someone that can create change even if it is just in one person like my father
did for me. Being a leader or a great leader is so much more than just a job,
it is hard to describe “It is consequently very difficult to settle on a single
definition of leadership that is general enough to accommodate these many
meaning and specific enough to serve as an operationalization of the variable
(Yukl pg. 7).” What this quote means to me is that leadership is just something
that you can feel and it is not a task nor is it a job.
Reference:
Reference:
Yukl,
G. (2013). Leadership in organizations (8th ed.). Upper Saddle
River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
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